Mamil. It stands for Middle-aged Man in Lycra, and it is the title of a forthcoming documentary film by the Australian director Nickolas Bird. As a distinguished historian plaintively remarked yesterday, “It is not very fashionable to be a man these days”. And to be a middle-aged man in stretchy synthetics on a newly acquired racing bike is as uncool as can be.

But followers of fashion know that the nadir of uncoolth invariably presages an imminent return to dazzling modishness. Just as the floral midi dresses of my early adolescence, once risibly dowdy, are now adored by fashion editors, a moment has come for chaps of a certain age.

Bird’s film follows the stories of middle-aged men around the...